Spotify’s CEO, Daniel Ek, apologised to the users of the music streaming service after the company’s new privacy policy caused an online backlash. Some of the more notable changes to the policy include Spotify’s potentially collecting their users' photos and contact information: “With your permission, we may collect information stored on your mobile device, such as contacts, photos, or media files.“ Additionally, the streaming service might also collect geolocation data from users’ mobile devices: "Depending on the type of device that you use to interact with the Service and your settings, we may also collect information about your location based on, for example, your phone’s GPS location or other forms of locating mobile devices (e.g., Bluetooth).” As well as motion sensor information, including “data about the speed of your movements, such as whether you are running, walking, or in transit.”  

In a blog post on the company’s website, the CEO apologised for the lack of clarity regarding some of the changes and stated that some of the changes are in anticipation of future or hypothetical features. With regards to the program collecting information on a user’s contacts, he wrote, “In the future, we may want to give you the ability to find your friends on Spotify by searching for Spotify users in your contacts if you choose to do that.” He went on to say that with regards to advertising, “We also share some data with our partners who help us with marketing and advertising efforts, but this information is de-identified – your personal information is not shared with them.” 

It’s true that some of the changes to the Privacy Policy, such as the points regarding motion sensors, are necessary for new functionality. The Spotify Running feature attempts to match the beats-per-minute of the music it chooses to your running speed. However, the new privacy policy provisions have some of the 75 million active Spotify users concerned. Markus Persson, creator of Minecraft, tweeted to his 2.4 million followers that he was cancelling his Spotify account due to the changes.